To share and connect with those interested in writing from life, recording their personal histories, writing a memoir for publication and/or personal use, and all things related to writing one's story.

"Have you thought about writing your family history, but found yourself stuck from the start? Writing a family narrative can be a daunting task, but Karen Jones Gowen found a way to bring her mother's story to life." (Homespun Magazine)

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Use it up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without

In my novel Uncut Diamonds, the main characters, Marcie and Shawn McGill, experience some rough times. It is the seventies, when the U.S. had one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. Marcie has to get resourceful to make ends meet, and she gets ideas and motivation from the writings of her grandmother, who was a farm wife in Nebraska during the Great Depression.

Many people talk about the poor economy right now, but believe me, it isn't anything like what we experienced in the seventies. *I sound so old when I say that* Still, along with many currently trying to spend less is the recycle, reuse, going green-type mentality that brings back some of the frugal practices of days past.

Like this awesome dress my friend made out of two T-shirts:

She took a red and a blue T-shirt, cut and sewed and came up with a cute jersey dress to wear to our Fourth of July BBQ.

The T-shirts were given to her, she gets a lot of them from her job and so snip/snip voila!

Followers

Just Do It! Write Your Story

"I devoted myself, early on, to writing. Really writing. Just doing it, no matter how awkward and unfit I felt. So every single morning I am on the planet, I grit my teeth and this hard, embarrassing, abject, thrilling thing--writing--because I want, in part, to count." (from Page after Page by Heather Sellers)

Photos from Farm Girl

High school graduation photo of Lucille Marker, the farm girl

Lucille drinking from the well

John Marker, Dust Bowl Days

The Marker Nebraska farmstead

"Farm Girl presents a vision of life on a Nebraska homestead during the 1920's and 1930's, told from a child's perspective, and illustrated with photographs of the time." (Quincy Herald Whig)

"Through the intertwined stories of the life of the Marker family and of the broader historical time period, the book is more than captivating. Gowen's vivid account of her mother's life allows Farm Girl to read as seamlessly as if one were recalling personal memories." (The Holyoke Enterprise)

"Farm Girl will capture the interest of readers in the photos the book contains and witty recollections Lucille has of her grandparents in Catherton Township." (The Red Cloud Chief)

To Buy My Books

True coming of age story of a young girl growing up on a 1930's Nebraska farm.

Click to order

A young married couple struggles to find balance during the over-the-top decade of the Seventies. An autobiographical novel.

Praise for Uncut Diamonds

"What I love is the dialogue." (Deirdre Paulsen, BYU English professor)

"...tight, realistic, warm family truth... exactly the kind of realistic character-and relationship-driven writing I have been waiting to happen in the LDS market." (Marilyn Brown, award-winning author and benefactor of the annual Marilyn Brown Award)